People accused of crimes in New York and
their families are often unclear about what the charges are, or even if
they are informed of the charges are unclear as to what they mean.
The information here will:
- help you put the name of the crime to
a penal law section number you may have heard
- help you find the penal law section
number of the name of the crime
- help you get a sense of the
seriousness of the crime by the offense level
- help you to get a very general sense
of the potential sentences or punishments for the crime charged
New York Crimes Information:
New York Penal Code Number
Somewhere in the process you might have heard a reference to a Penal Law
Section number.
Penal Law Section numbers are
usually 3 digit numbers followed by a decimal and then usually a 2 digit
number (for example, 000.00). The following link will take
you to a list of crimes in numerical order by New York Penal Code.
Simply follow the numbers and you will find the charge.
View New York Crimes in numerical order by Penal Law Section Code.
(This will come up in a new window and may take a few moments to load
depending on your connection speed.)
New York Penal Code Crime Names
Somewhere in the arrest process you
might have heard someone mention a particular crime but you may be
unsure about its seriousness. The link below will take you to an
alphabetical list of New York Crimes that will also give you an idea of
the seriousness by providing the offense level.
View New York Crimes in alphabetical order by
their names. (This will come up in a new window and may take a few
moments to load depending on your connection speed.)
New York Crimes by Offense Level
If you are interested in seeing lists
of crimes by their specific offense levels, click on an offense level
below. Since these are smaller categories, they will load quickly in
a new window.
Calculating Potential Sentences in New
York State
Once you have the OFFENSE LEVEL of
the crime you are interested in finding out about, follow the link below
to be taken to a New York State sentencing chart you can use to get a
ROUGH idea of what the potential sentence
might be.
PLEASE be aware that by clicking on
the link below you are agreeing that you understand that sentencing
guidelines are more complicated than what is presented on the web here.
You promise not to make any decision in a real criminal case based on
this rough sentencing chart before you have confirmed its accuracy with
a real live human
New York criminal defense lawyer. The
sentencing information provided here is meant to help you begin to
understand a more complicated process. It is by no means meant to
be considered a definitive answer. At 3:00 AM it will be better
than the likely answer you will get from most lawyers' answering
services, but it should not be the sole basis upon which any real
decision is made in a criminal case.
I AGREE TO THE
ABOVE STATEMENT AND WANT TO SEE A ROUGH ESTIMATE OF THE NEW YORK STATE
SENTENCING GUIDELINES
